Currently, integrated telecom operators provide increasingly rich varieties of services to subscribers. The integrated telecom operators allow the subscribers to simultaneously subscribe to several services such as service of multiple terminals with one number and Virtual Private Network (VPN) service. The service of multiple terminals with one number means that multiple communication terminals are externally reflected as one number, and the subscribers can flexibly make a call using the multiple communication terminals. The VPN service means that the subscribers can dial a short group number to realize a group call.
In case that a subscriber simultaneously subscribes to multiple services, those services will be nested, i.e., one communication made by the subscriber using a communication terminal may simultaneously trigger the multiple services. For example, communication terminals 1 and 2 subscribe to the service of multiple terminals with one number and are externally reflected as the number of communication terminal 1, and communication terminal 2 subscribes to the VPN service. When the subscriber dials a short group number using communication terminal 2, the service of multiple terminals with one number is triggered firstly, and then the VPN service is triggered. The service of multiple terminals with one number modifies the calling number as the number of communication terminal 1, and the VPN service translates the called short group number into a long group number for a call connection.
During the implementation of the present invention, the inventor finds that different services are corresponding to different service platforms, and the service platforms cannot be aware that the services are nested, thus each of the service platforms initiates a independent charging request flow during the implementation of the service respectively. Since a charging platform cannot be aware that the services are nested, it executes independent charging flows for each of the charging request flows respectively. As a result, when one communication made by the subscriber triggers multiple services, the charging platform will charge the triggered services, respectively, so that the charging result for the one communication is a sum of the charged fees for the multiple services. Thus the charging mode in the prior art is inflexible, and cannot meet various charging requirements for the nested services.